MD Woman Tied To Staged Kidnapping Case

SILVER SPRING, MD — Asia Coy, a 34-year-old woman from Silver Spring, is facing an extortion charge after she was linked to two other women who attempted to extort a friend.

The Metropolitan Police Department said Monday that Coy was arrested Feb. 19 by officials with the U.S. Marshal's Service.

Coy is facing charges alongside D.C. residents Shante Duncan Sanders, 36, and Nordia Coy, 42. The two D.C. women, who are both facing extortion charges, were arrested Dec. 5.

MPD said Sanders and the Coys contacted a woman they knew just before 6:30 p.m. on Dec. 4, informing her that her friend had been kidnapped and that she would not be released until a ransom was provided.

To convince the woman of the kidnapping, the trio sent an image of Sanders bound and gagged. DC News Now reported that Sanders was the woman pictured and that she had known the woman being extorted for about eight months.

The pair had met while in a women's shelter, according to the outlet.

MPD was alerted about the case after being called by the targeted woman to the 1900 block of Massachusetts Avenue that same December day. Investigators looking into the kidnapping case later found Sanders unharmed.

It's not immediately known how Sanders and the Coys came to know each other, or if they're tied to other similar cases.